Until recently, the pharmaceutical industry has relied upon empty gelatin capsules for the encapsulation of medicinal agents as a popular method for administering drugs. Hard capsules are not new. As early as 1848 Murdock introduced the two-piece, hard gelatin capsule. Capsules are tasteless, easily administered and easily filled either extemporaneously or in large quantities commercially. Many patients find it easier to swallow capsules than tablets, therefore preferring to take this form whenever possible. This preference has prompted pharmaceutical manufacturers to market certain products in capsule form even though they are also available in tablet form.
Empty gelatin capsules are typically made from gelatin-glycerin, pure gelatin, starch or sugar gelatin, or other soluble gelatin combinations. See Remington's Practice of Pharmacy, Martin & Cook, 17th edition, pp. 1625-1630, which is herein incorporated by reference. Capsules serve as adequate housings for powders, masses, liquids, pellets and oils and offer improve palatability and convenience.
Generally, empty hard gelatin capsules are manufactured using automated equipment. This equipment employs rows of stainless steel pins, mounted on bars or plates, which are dipped into a gelatin solution maintained at a uniform temperature and fluidity. The pins are then withdrawn from the gelatin solution, are rotated and then inserted into drying kilns through which a strong blast of filtered air with controlled humidity is forced. A crude capsule half is thus formed over each pin during drying. Each capsule half is then stripped, trimmed to uniform length, filled and joined to an appropriate mating half. Such hard capsule making systems are sold by Cherry-Burrell of Cedar Rapids, IA.
During most of this century, empty gelatin capsules were a popular dosage form for prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. However, in the early 1980's there was an unexpected increase in tampering with the contents of those capsules, resulting in several widely publicized deaths. This curtailed consumer demand for these products, caused ubiquitous concern regarding safety among those in the pharmaceutical community, and idled much of the industry's hard capsule making equipment. Improved gelatin capsules and tamper-resistant packaging were then developed, but were expensive to produce and were not foolproof.
Once the threat of capsule tampering was recognized, many manufacturers withdrew their capsule products from the market, often replacing them with solid, oblong-shaped medicaments referred to commonly as caplets. Caplets are solid oblong tablets which are sometimes coated with material such as cellulose. Typically, this coating is applied using coating-pan systems such as the "Vector-Freund Hi-Coaters, sold by Vector Corporation, 675 44th Street, Marion, Iowa, or the GC-1000" sold by Glatt Air Techniques' 20 Spear Road, Ramsey, New Jersey.
A coating-pan system has a perforated pan or a drum which revolves in a manner similar to a standard clothes dryer. The system includes an air-atomization, spray gun which is inserted into the center of the drum for spraying a fine mist of coating material. A batch of solid medicaments or caplets is typically introduced into the cylindrical pan, wherein said batch is caused to tumble. The tumbling action tends to smooth out some of the rough edges on the caplets prior to coating them with organic or aqueous film solutions which may contain solid additives. Coating pans generally produce consistent coating thicknesses and weights but are capable of providing only one color coating. Coatings produced by this method are often thin, offering poor coverage of medicament imperfections and rough edges not removed by the tumbling operation. Unless time is taken to build up a thicker coat, defects on the solid core result in a medicament that does not exhibit a pleasing appearance and may be perceived as being harder to swallow. Moreover, coating abrasion occurring during tumbling produces a surface finish on these medicaments that fails to exhibit the shiny surface that consumers and those in the art have associated with ease of swallowability. Applicant has pan coated caplets with gelatin on an experimental basis and has measured coating thicknesses of only about 6 mils. Moreover, these pan coated gelatin caplets were not observed to be as shiny as caplets coated by a dipping process.
Swallowability, the ability to pass through the fauces, pharynx and esophagus into the stomach, is dependent on the physical characteristics of the medicament as well as psychological factors. See Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Anderson Publishing Co., 5th edition'p.1377, which page is herein incorporated by reference. Physical characteristics, such as medicament shape, size and surface finish, can be correlated with esophageal adherence and swallowability. With respect to psychological factors, swallowing is normally volitional in adults, and muscular contractions of the throat are understood to be under the control of the individual at a subconscious level. See Stedman's, at 1377. Consumer surveys suggest that a shiny, capsule-like appearance has a special appeal to users as being easier to swallow. In addition, surveys indicate that consumers perceive capsule products to be more effective, thereby adding a possible additional placebo factor to their actual effectiveness.
Solid medicaments comprising gelatin in their coatings have been taught in a number of patents and abstracts. J. A. Glassman, U.S. Pat. No. 3,228,789, for instance, is directed to peroral capsules and tablets and a method for manufacturing same. Glassman discloses delayed release, compartmental medicaments with gelatin coatings, and includes treatments for tablets or pellet coatings. The abstract of Japanese patent No. 52041213, assigned to Feund Industry Ltd., discloses a process for coating tablets with a solution containing gelatin as a film-forming agent. The abstract of Japanese patent No. 69027916, assigned to Sankyo Co. Ltd., is directed to gelatin coated tablets and a process for making same. The process of this patent includes feeding raw tablets at continuous intervals into a support. The tablets are immersed in a coating solution which can comprise gelatin. They are then recovered and held on a holder. Excess coating solution deposited at the lower surface of the tablet is removed by an eliminating plate, and finally the tablet is released into a cooling solution from which it is recovered and dried to produce a seamless coated tablet. The abstract of Japanese patent No. 65009992, assigned to Konishi, is directed to a film-coating method using gelatin for coating tablets in a coating pan. The gelatin described in this abstract is pre-treated with water in a pressure-cooker at a 120.degree.-140.degree. F. for 30-40 minutes to reduce the adhesive properties of the gelatin to allow coating of the tablet. The abstract of Japanese patent No. 65009994, also assigned to Konishi, is directed to coating tablets in a coating pan with an emulsion including a mixture of hot water, gelatin, a surface active agent and a member selected from a group consisting of fats and oils, paraffin and wax. The use of the emulsion described in this patent abstract allows tablets to be coated with gelatin in the same manner as coating tablets with sugar. See also the abstract of an article by Richardson entitled "Franciscus Pill Coater", Phar. Hist., 28: 90-91 (2) 1986. This abstract is directed to the Franciscus Pill Coater, one of the later refinements of the gelatin-coated process that appealed to the practicing pharmacists in the 19th century. Other abstracts also disclosing coatings for solid medicaments comprising gelatin include those for: Japanese patent No. 60084215, assigned to Shinetsu Chemical Industries, U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,510, assigned to Lifesavers, Inc., and Japanese patent No. 69026677, assigned to Daiichi Seiyaku Co. Ltd.
Several patents have disclosed the concept of coating pills by dipping half the surface of the pill at a time. Richards, U.S. Pat. No. 599,865 is directed to a process and apparatus for dipping pills wherein an adhesive bearing bar is used to hold the pills before dipping them into gelatin. This process requires great care in maintaining the consistency of the adhesive material, i.e. wax, so that each pill will adhere to the dipping-bar. The specification of Richards also warns that great care must be taken not to dip the pills so deep as to get any of the gelatin upon the wax, which may ruin its adhesive capacity. The method of Richards additionally is labor intensive, and therefore, is more expensive by today's standards. Clark, U.S. Pat. No. 724,436, is directed to a pill coating machine that employs pill-bars having a series of perforations for receiving pills. Each perforation is adapted for suction, whereby the pill is held in position during the dipping operation. Banker, U.S. Pat. No. 3,896,762, discloses a rotary immersion coating that similarly employs suction to hold solid medicaments prior to passing these medicaments through a coating bath. While Clark and Banker provide apparatus for holding and dipping medicaments, neither discloses that the final product will exhibit a capsule-like appearance with or without a seam. Moreover, applicant has tested vacuum holding apparatus and has discovered that the suction tends to attract some of the gelatin into the holder, producing an irregular seam. Vacuum holding systems such as these also require significant power consumption, are often complicated and uncertain in their action, and necessitate expensive and sensitive vacuum equipment. Finally Oddo, U.S. Pat. No. 3,045,641, discloses apparatus for color-coding tablets that utilizes a rotating resilient roller impregnated with a coating substance, whereby tablets are passed beneath the roller on a conveyor and are deeply impressed into the resilient roller surface. This patent does not disclose the use of gelatin or the use of a dipping process to produce a thick capsule-like coating.
Although these gelatin coated medicaments and processes have achieved some commercial success in the marketplace, a need remains for a coated medicament which is at least as tamper-resistant as a caplet while providing the ease of swallowability of a capsule. There is also a need for a less expensive medicament coating method capable of producing a multi-colored, capsule-like coating which is perceived by the consuming public to be more effective.